Posts tagged ‘NetFlix’

Amazon is rumored as extending its reach into the mobile market. Bloomberg reported that Amazon is working on a phone rumored to run on Google’s Android OS, along with Foxconn, manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone. Further Amazon is supposed to be seeking patent acquisitions to complement its entry into the smartphone market and defend itself from patent trolls.

Amazon has positioned itself to enter the smartphone market with its entry into the tablet foray with Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire has become the second best selling tablet after the iPad (based on speculated sales numbers of the Amazon Kindle tablet). With Amazon prime, cloud and app store, Amazon is more than ready to enter the phone business. One would expect Amazon to follow its aggressive Kindle pricing on its new smart phone as well. With other major brands like Samsung, HTC, Motorola dominating the low price point phone market, it would be hard for Amazon to gain a market share there. It may, however, try to score in the higher price point space – iPhone’s arena, but, in my opinion, Amazon lacks the expensive brand value that Apple portrays.

Amazon could bundle 4G data services with the phone. Some analysts suggest that Amazon might charge $249 for the handset bundled with six months of 4G LTE data. The ultimate game plan that we all know Amazon will go after is to sell its phone at an extraordinarily low price and blow through its inventory by bundling free two day shipping (Amazon Prime), beat Netflix at its own game (again Amazon Prime!), sell apps (via Amazon App Store) and its other software services.

I dont think Amazon phone is a viable option to the Apple iPhone, but it definitely would be strong enough to fight the low price market segment. Selling the device at little or no margin is most probably the path Amazon will follow, but I would be excited to watch Amazon approach an entirely different model.

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Sorry fAndroids .. you can’t get your hands on a Netflix App for some time or at least until Netflix figures out how to keep its media secure on Android. However, if you had an iPhone (or even a Windows Phone 7) you wouldn’t be crying about being deprived of Netflix on your phone!

Netflix says that “the lack of a generic platform and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available on Android” has prevented it from providing Netflix content on Android. Basically, it is saying that Android does not help keep the media secure and that Hollywood will hold Netflix to its neck if users are able to rip, convert and save movies illegally!

GoogleChic, I don’t want to say that “Steve told you so” 🙂 but hasn’t he been saying all along that Android is too fragmented for mobile developers to develop their applications. And this might just be the next avalanche that Google will have to tackle!

BY THE GOOGLE CHIC

With Android being an open source system, I would think there are more options for Netflix. I’m not a security or DRM (technology utilized to protect copyright material) expert, but can’t Netflix bake the security into their app?

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Apple has started shipping its revamped $99 Apple TVs and the first reviews have just started trickling in. You get to watch a huge collection of first run movies starting at $3.99 or rent TV shows in HD for $0.99 per episode. Tune into internet video content with the new super cool Apple-istic NetFlix, You Tube, and browse your photo galleries on Flickr and Mobile Me. Check out this comprehensive Apple TV review video by PCMag below.

Apple TV comes with a simple remote as well as Remote App for your iDevices. This sweet App lets you rent shows, navigate or scroll through with the flick of your finger. Isn’t that cool? It’s like a scrolling with a mouse except that your monitor is your enormous HDTV. When you want to type out something you can use the keyboard on your iDevice.

The new Apple TV runs on iOS 4.1 and users have been poking around for clues on its prospective functionality. Check out MacTalk, who found hints of Facetime, external storage as well as DVD player support in the firmware. These features might never see the light of day but nonetheless gives us a view to what Apple might have in store for the future. The much awaited AirPlay that will let you stream media from any of your iDevices to the Apple TV or some third party audio makers is yet to be released in November as part of iOS 4.2 release.

This is just the start of Apple revolutionizing TV! Mark my words, you will soon find a plethora of companies following in Apple’s footsteps!

With all our music, movies, pictures, contacts and mail seamlessly integrated between all our iDevices, I think Apple has built us a beautiful garden. As all Android purists, GoogleChic, I presume you will say that the beautiful garden is a “walled garden” ;), but who cares? I am not fighting to decentralize the consumer industry. All I want is an excellent user experience and Apple is giving that to me!

Apple wants you to throw your money down the drain and rent TV shows for $0.99. Google integrates your cable box and the web nicely onto your TV. You can watch the latest episode online or the show you just DVRed all for free 🙂

Apple doesn’t offer apps on the Apple TV, don’t you want to play angry birds on your big screen? Well, you’ll be able to do that on Google TV.

Apple’s HD videos caps out at 720p, Google can bring you 1080p thanks to the Intel Atom processor as compared to the A4.

I’m sounding like a Droid Does commercial. Enough said?

Google TV will release sometime in October. You can buy it pre-built into a Sony TV or you can purchase the Google TV box made by Logitech. Speaking of which check out the first glimpse of Sony’s Google TV.